Hauser Ready For Season

     “Something clicks and I stop being the nice guy and start kinda being a dick,” sophomore Zach Hauser said while playing Xbox. “It’s just like a mindset that you have to get into [when he steps onto the football field].”

     Well that is one way to put it. Hauser is set to enter his second season as starting defensive tackle for the Macalester Scots and is also trying out for the basketball team.  Hauser is a chemistry major and math minor with dreams of becoming a crime lab technician.

     Hauser has always been playing multiple sports, as he used to play soccer until 5^th grade and baseball through high school. He also made state his senior year for discus.

     Hauser grew up in Port Washington and Cedar Grove with his mother, Tania Ponfil-Switon, helping him through everything and making him become a very independent person. He was very close with his grandpa before he died when he was 12. His mother and grandmother, affectionately known as “Nana,” have never missed a game that he has played in any sport. Nana even kept a stroke a secret so she could watch his final high school football game, which they won off of Hauser’s game winning safety, before going into the hospital.

     Hauser enjoys spending time with his girlfriend, Abby, of nearly a year, playing Xbox and hanging out with friends. There is never a dull moment with him around, as he has a joke, a random animal noise, or some other way to elicit a smile from whomever he is with.

     His confidence is something that sets him apart from others. Not to be confused with cockiness, according to Dictionary.com, confidence means the belief in one’s powers or abilities.

     He once told his stepsister, Savannah St. Peter, “Even if I don’t know what I am doing, I make it look like I do.”

     This omnipresent confidence is the thing that he relies on to get him through everyday activities. It also allows him to excel on the football field.

     Throughout his high school football career, for the Port Washington Pirates, he played nearly every position. He excelled as tight end and defensive end for his squad that struggled to losing records in each of his four seasons on varsity.

     During his senior season he accumulated 34 tackles, 10 for loss, and four sacks on the defensive side of the ball. As tight end, he was even better with 20 catches for 406 yards and six touchdowns.

     Those numbers were good enough to propel him to be selected to the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Star game. It was a week-long event where he raised money for Children’s Hospital. He practiced at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater before playing in the All-Star Game at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. His South side won in a blowout 37-0.

     “Just being in the All-Star game was pretty fun,” Hauser said. “That was probably the highlight of my football career so far.”

     His accolades do not stop there though. He was awarded Freshman [this was the first time a freshman was awarded this], Junior, and Senior Athlete of the Year, Athletic Director Award, Fran Joch Scholar Athlete Award, First Team All-Conference tight end his junior year and earned 1^st team All-State tight end his senior year. He also hit a triple off the 400 sign in dead center field at Miller Park and was recruited by Wisconsin for a short period of time.

     Hauser was a captain at one point in every sport he played. In addition to all of that, he still managed to be on the High Honor Roll his entire high school career.

     Hauser transitioned to college remarkably well last year. In seven games, he had seven solo tackles, eight assists, 2.5 tackles for loss and a blocked kick. This year, he has a starting position locked and will be featured in some goal-line packages on offense for the Scots.

     Last year, his 40-yard dash time was measured before the football season at 4.78. That is a better time than last year’s 24^th overall NFL draft pick defensive end Bjoern Werner.

     This year, after putting on 25 pounds of muscle in the offseason, Hauser ran 4.83, which Werner ran at the draft combine last year. That is pretty remarkable considering Hauser is 18 pounds heavier and an inch taller than Werner which really displays his NFL-like quickness.

     Since working with Macalester’s strength and conditioning program, he has gained 40 pounds on his bench press, up to 305 pounds. His squat also increased to 460 pounds.   

     Basketball is a completely different story.  He has played basketball since the 3^rd grade.  He was a backup power forward for his regional winning squad in his junior year. Hauser started over half of his games in his senior year and used his strength to become a skilled low post player that would harass opposing big men, particularly Cedarburg’s star forward Jake Borgardt.

     “Zach just got into his psyche and totally frustrated him, “Ponfil-Switon said. “Our coaches on the sideline were laughing so hard they were wiping their eyes because the frustration on Bogardt with Zach out there up against him. Then he [Borgardt] would get down [in an offensive post position] and Zach would get lower [in his defensive stance]. He would go down farther and Zach would go down farther.”

     After taking a year off, he does not know what to expect when it comes to basketball this year.

     “When I stopped playing basketball, I thought that I wasn’t going to miss it at all,” Hauser said. “I just said I was going to watch, but after watching and meeting all the guys on the team, I figured out that I really missed it more than I thought I would. It turns out I still have a shot after last year.”

     Giving back to the community means a lot to him as well. He has volunteered at daycares, Feed My Starving Children and Habitat for Humanity with the Macalester football team, and Athletes in Action, where he took out garbage for everyone living in his grandmother’s senior apartments.

     Hauser also helps in local football and baseball camps through the Port Washington program. It is something he looks forward to each year.

     “I know I wish that I would have had that extra coaching help who was still playing, coming back and sharing what they know,” Hauser said.

     Hauser is a confident, caring collegiate athlete that helps out as many as he can. As soon as he puts on his helmet and pads, Hauser turns into a completely different person and his inner “dick” attitude emerges. The hard-charging 6’4 278-pound defensive tackle is a quarterback’s worst nightmare imaginable and quite the nemesis to go up against for a rebound on the basketball court.

     As his mom so aptly put it, “He’s had his success because he wants to be the best.”